Gospel of Jesus

The Authen­tic Gospel of Jesus

Instead of writ­ing a full-scale biog­ra­phy of Jesus of Nazareth, I want to focus on some aspects of the life and teach­ing of Jesus of Nazareth that are com­mon­ly over­looked by most Chris­tians. Any attempt to recon­struct the his­tor­i­cal Jesus (as dis­tinct from the incar­nate deity of eccle­si­as­ti­cal faith) needs to take into account all the recov­er­able data about Jesus, much of which has been ignored by many Chris­tians because of its’ embar­rass­ment to Chris­t­ian ortho­doxy. Jesus’ report­ed say­ings in the Gospels are fre­quent­ly sub­ject­ed to tor­tu­ous exe­ge­sis by fun­da­men­tal­ist Chris­tians to make them fit lat­er church tra­di­tion. Para­dox­i­cal­ly, the data has been crit­i­cal­ly exam­ined by none oth­er than Chris­t­ian schol­ars themselves.

The Pagan Christ(ianity) 1

The Pagan Christ(ianity)

Chris­tian­i­ty is based on the mys­tery reli­gions of the ancient world. The doc­trines of the ​“Trin­i­ty” and ​“incar­na­tion” were bor­rowed from the pagans. In fact, the whole reli­gion was fab­ri­cat­ed after the depar­ture of Jesus. The leg­endary sto­ries of ​‘man-god’ sav­iors dying for the sins of their peo­ple (and ris­ing three days lat­er) were com­mon­ly prop­a­gat­ed. The Chris­tian­i­ty that we know today sim­ply pla­gia­rized the sto­ries and foist­ed them upon Jesus (P).

Christ-Worshippers

“O’ Christ-Wor­ship­pers!” A Qasi­dah Which Refutes Christianity

Ibn al-Qayy­im al-Jauziyyah was a promi­nent Mus­lim jurist dur­ing Islam’s Gold­en Age. Apart from his juris­dis­tic prowess, he was also com­pe­tent in com­pos­ing qasi­dah (Ara­bic poet­ry). Among his more famous works was the qasi­dah enti­tled A’ob­bad al-Maseeh Fi Naqd al-Nas­raniyyah (O Christ-Wor­ship­pers ! A Poem Refut­ing Chris­tian­i­ty). This qasi­dah is well-known in the Mus­lim world and has even been turned into a song. The fol­low­ing is the Eng­lish trans­la­tion of the poet­ry which is imme­di­ate­ly accom­pa­nied by the Ara­bic original.

The Descent Of Jesus Son Of Mary, As Por­trayed In The Quran

How can Jesus son Mary, be a sign of the Hour (Dooms­day)? It can­not be except with his descent being in the last stage and peri­od. His descent would then be a great sign and one of the major por­tents of the Hour — a sign that announces the close­ness of its occur­rence. This is how the verse has com­mon­ly been explained by the schol­ars of tafsir (exe­ge­sis of the Quran). Amongst them are Mujahid, Sud­dee, Qata­da, Hasan al-Bas­ri, Dah­haak and Ibn Zayd. It is also the say­ing of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him). They all have stat­ed this explic­it­ly, that Jesus son of Mary is one of the signs of the Hour in the sense that he will descend and rule the earth and dwell there­in for forty years, as is men­tioned in the authen­tic hadith, that will be men­tioned short­ly. And his descent will be one of the great signs of Allah and one of the supreme por­tents of the Hour.

Tarif Kha­li­di, ​“The Mus­lim Jesus”

The fol­low­ing is a syn­op­sis of Tarif Kha­lidi’s book enti­tled : ​“The Mus­lim Jesus”, which might lead peo­ple to learn more about Islam. Tarif Kha­li­di is Sir Thomas Adams’ Pro­fes­sor of Ara­bic, Direc­tor of the Cen­tre of Mid­dle East­ern and Islam­ic Stud­ies, and Fel­low of King’s Col­lege, Cam­bridge. Here is a cross-sec­tion of book reviews from a vari­ety of sources.